Health Benefits of Nuts

The health benefits of nuts have been overlooked for a long time with people concentrating only on their high fat content. Today, things have changed.

The
health benefits of nuts are so many that experts now urge you to eat
nuts to save your heart, reduce diabetes, ward off cancer, lose weight
and perhaps fend off Parkinson's disease and live longer.

Nuts are definitely one of the primary ingredients of a healthy diet.

Nuts Nutrition Facts

Nuts are an excellent substitute for meat, cheese and other fatty foods and satisfy the craving for fat, researchers say.

Sure, nuts contain a significant amount of fat, but it's mostly the good monounsaturated type that discourages disease.

How Nuts Keep You Healthy

Reduce Heart Disease

Consistently, studies find that nut eaters are from 30 to 50% less likely to develop or die of heart disease.

The
Food and Drug Administration now agrees that eating an ounce and a half
of nuts (about 1/3 cup or 40g) a day, including almonds, hazelnuts,
pecans, pistachios, walnuts and peanuts, as part of a low animal fat
diet, may reduce heart disease.

Lower Cholesterol

In several
studies the consumption of almonds, walnuts or macadamia nuts (two to
three ounces or 55 to 85g a day) depressed bad LDL cholesterol by up to
29% and in some cases raised good HDL cholesterol by up to 8%.

Eating eight to eleven walnuts daily instead of other fats further lowered bad cholesterol about 6%.

Combat Diabetes

A long term
Harvard study of 83,000 women nurses, aged 34 to 59, found that nuts,
including peanuts, significantly lower the risk of developing type 2
diabetes.

Women who ate 1 oz./30 g. of nuts more than five times a
week were nearly 30% less apt to have diabetes as those who never ate
nuts or ate less than an ounce a week, regardless of weight or other
risk factors for diabetes.

Reduce Cancer Risk

In India, for example, eating cashews is linked to less colon cancer, says Bandaru Reddy of the American Health Foundation.

Canadian research suggests eating nuts as well as seeds and beans can reduce risk of endometrial cancer.

Prevent Parkinson's Disease

When Harvard researchers analysed the diets of thousands of doctors
and female nurses in the long term ongoing studies, they found that the
health benefits of nuts may extend to protect against Parkinson's
disease.

Individuals who ate an ounce of nuts more than five
times a week, compared with those who did so less than once a month, had
a surprising 43% lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease.

Promote Weight Loss

Contrary to popular opinion, people who eat nuts are no fatter than those those who don't.

Studies show nut eaters are more likely to lose weight and keep it off.

In
a study at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, dieters on equal
calories lost more weight on a diet high in monounsaturated fat,
including nuts, peanuts and peanut butter, than did those on a very
low-fat diet and kept it off longer.

After 18 months, high-fat nut eaters had lost nine pounds; low-fat dieters had gained more than six pounds.

Possible
reasons: Purdue University research found peanut butter dampened the
appetite, staving off hunger for two and a half hours compared with mere
half hour for snacks such as rice cakes.

Further the fat in nuts
is not totally absorbed. Peanuts have an extremely low glycemic index,
meaning they don't spike blood sugar that leads to hunger and weight
gain.

Some Quick Serving Ideas to Enjoy the Health Benefits of Nuts

Add some sliced almonds or ground nuts to plain yogurt to provide a little crunch or add them to your morning cereals.

Make an open-faced sandwich of any nut butter of your choice and bananas drizzled with a little honey.

Shelled
and coarsely chopped Brazil nuts make a great addition to virtually any
pasta dish. Once the pasta is cooked and has been transferred to a
serving bowl, lightly toast 1/2 cup of Brazil nuts for every serving of
pasta in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. Shake the skillet
frequently, until the nuts become fragrant - about 2 minutes - and add
them to pasta.

There are so many varieties of nuts that I'm sure you'll want to know the health benefits of each one of them. So read the article Different Types of Nuts to have a look at the health benefits of individual nuts.